Ren'Py Gripes

[PyTom]

That's a good point.

I will address this. I'm not sure if I should do this right away, or as part of a Character rewrite/simplification.

[backansi]

Why can save/load/variable viewer affect "list + another_list" and why cannot these affect 'list.append()'?
Hope '.append' could be the same with "+".

[backansi]

It's too hard to find the perfect size of ruby text when I put three or four characters above one character and even if I change thier size only using text tag, it seems unbalanced with the others.
I want to be able to narrowing some ruby texts.

[jack_norton]

I discovered today that while cache_pin shouldn't be used anymore, in practice, is still useful. I think that screens should use some caching.
I explain better what I mean: I think renpy should see if the same image is loaded several times and put it in cache. It seems that if you use the add command on screens, those images aren't cached at all. In Loren I had the problem that hovering on the small items they were displayed at bigger dimension, and it was slow even on desktop PC. Since I put all the item art on cache, there's not delay anymore. I think maybe somehow this could be automated? otherwise for certain specific case cache pin/unpin is still very useful!

[backansi]

Fading new text in, please...

[OdysseyStudio]

@ backansi

isn't that what

Code: Select all

 Name "Text typed here" with dissolve

is for?

[backansi]

No, I mean showing text one by one with fading in like novelty or etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFVRLlPEL3o
I saw the topic related with this feature two years ago and still it is not in renpy so that I wrote that post:3

[GJsoft]

*CONTENT DELETED*

[sake-bento]

Ara...I feel bad calling this a gripe, since it's really not... O_< Concerning the Android port, I got this comment on my blog:

Perhaps you could code it so that it rotates with the device, like if you hold it upright the view is in portrait mode, and if you hold the device on it's side, the view is in landscape mode. Some apps have this, and I find it a very nice feature. And, you won't have people complaining about how they wanted the other orientation.

I honestly have no idea how this might be implemented. Maybe some sort of boolean that changes an image based on the current orientation. Even if there isn't auto detect, it might be nice to make it a manual option. Honestly, not a huge issue, as many apps don't do that, and it certainly won't kill a sale if it's not implemented. But I figured I'd pass it along.

[PyTom]

I've been looking into this, but don't have an idea on how to do this. What I really want to get soon is a mode where a game works in either landscape (or either portrait) orientation - but so far, I haven't had any luck on that. (It would be easy if I could require Android 2.3, but that's not in the cards, unless I wait for 2.2 devices to die off in a couple years.)

This feature would also be nice to have on a desktop, so the user can pick how wide the screen is and the game adjusts.

[jack_norton]

A Loren tester asked in my forums if would be possible to stop the music when you alt-tab (in practice, when the windows loses focus). I've seen some game do that (I think they pause the game completely). Not sure if it's easy to do, or if is worth your time of course

[Obscura]

This isn't a gripe--so far I am having a great time with the program...but is there anyway to get a Ren Py game into iOS so it could become a downloadable iphone or iPad app? What kind of resources would you need to design something that would port games in a standardized fashion? (in terms of time and money)

Or would each game have to be ported on an individual basis by individual programmers?

[PyTom]

The music thing is interesting. The next time I rewrite sound handling, I'll put a "pause the world" feature into it.

There's three things standing in the way of iOS at the moment:

* My time - Right now, I'm supporting 4 platforms, and that's taking quite a bit of effort. So I'm not sure I want to add a fifth one - especially a very different one - until I fix the things I want to fix on the current platforms.

* Tool maturity. The first demonstration of a Python/Pygame/GELS2 game running on Android just came out recently. I want to wait for that tool to mature before trying to base a Ren'Py port on it. (Kivy is actually quite similar to Ren'Py, internally. In fact, they used Ren'Py for Android as a basis for their Android port.)

* Equipment. Probably at least a newer Mac Mini and an iPad.

_You'll_ need a Mac to build for iOS, too - unlike Android, where the tools run everywhere, the iOS tools only run on OS X. (This could change if someone released an iOS signing tool that ran outside of a Mac.)

So it's a big investment of time and money, and I'm not sure it's the right time to make it - given that the tools I'd need are currently maturing.

[jack_norton]

I'd say that you could:
- wait a few months so that Kivy "matures". we waited for an iOS port for 1-2 years, a few months more won't be a problem
- meanwhile finish the Android tool so that works 100% well (I still have many strange problems with it... )
- once you feel you're ready, start a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money needed to buy the equipment. I'm pretty sure won't be a problem at all for the LSF community to raise 1-2k to repay you for all the work you made!
- alternatively, go commercial and keep the desktop version free but ask a small amount, for example $100-200 like other tools do (monkeycoder) for Ren'Py Android/iOS support.

[jack_norton]

Oh about this:

_You'll_ need a Mac to build for iOS, too - unlike Android, where the tools run everywhere, the iOS tools only run on OS X. (This could change if someone released an iOS signing tool that ran outside of a Mac.)

I don't think that it will EVER happen. Apple is well known to milk their customers and developers in particular forcing them to upgrade to new HW and software every 6months/1 year. Even professional tools like Unity, Marmalade, etc all require you to have a mac to sign the applications. The only exception are those using a cloud system (in practice you sign the app remotely with a Mac in the cloud, but I honestly wouldn't trust that).